There's a Disturbance Near My Cornfields!
Posted on Fri Dec 20th, 2024 @ 8:00pm by Captain Luka Mahone & Shea Voran II
1,265 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Terrorpin
Location: Farms outside Haumea Proper
Timeline: MD 01: 2043 hrs
It was far from abnormal for any of the Marshals to get strange calls. But, most of those had been reserved for Daucin sightings and minor disagreements between neighbors.
Tonight would have been a normal night full of complaints and uneventful hiccups, if not for the odd, reddish-green lump that jutted out of the farmland that belonged to the young, Bolian farmer who had called. She stood, hands on her hips, gesturing at the giant formation and growling at it. "This turnip crop is ruined! Look at this!" She exclaimed, looking on in annoyance at the green vegetables as they lay in various states of growth around the lump. "I had three weeks before I could harvest these."
Earthquakes on a geologically stable world notwithstanding, Shea had been one her way back to the office when the strange call came in. A quick detour sent her into the edges of the town toward one of the farms where she quickly slowed her jeep to a stop beside the rather agitated farmer.
"... the Hell...?" The Mazaran woman asked upon seeing the ... thing... in the middle of the field. "Okay, Ma'am, stay here while I have a look."
As she moved into the field (careful not to damage any more of the crop than necessary) she pulled a Starfleet-issue Tricorder from her field jacket and flipped it open, running a scan as she stopped a good ten meters from the object and crouching, looking it over carefully. "Okay, buddy... what are you?"
"Too hard to get these turnip seeds for a damn lump to appear in my fields." The farmer was nearby, plucking up as many of the vegetables as she could. "The Risians who gave me these are not gonna be happy with this."
The thoughts on her crops stopped when a rumble came from beneath their feet. "And there's that again. I can hear my family back home now; 'You should have stayed home and built the business in the next state over. Not gone all the way to the other end of the Quadrant." She made a 'tch' noise. "Marshal, if whatever that is is related to all these earthquakes, we might have some big ol' earthworms on our hands. Had a buncha those on Bolarus IX. Big, nasty things. Ate Bolians. Had no eyes. But this thing is looking close to one of those. Just.... More red than the purple the ones at home are."
Shea only half-listened to the farmer as she tapped on the tricorder, kneeling in the field some five meters from what was NOT your normal 'rock thrust up by the earth moving' type of thing. A few more taps on the thin diuranium box caused it to begin beeping at her in warning.
"Bloody Hell" is perhaps the closest translation to what emerged from the Mazaran's mouth as she stared at the object in growing concern, looking up to take in its sheer size.
"Whassat?" The farmer asked, curiously looking over Shea's shoulder. "Find out what it was?"
"Not yet." Shea hissed as she momentarily dropped her tricorder to pull on a pair of gloves, walking around the object to examine it. "But I am not liking what I am seeing..."
After doing a full circle of the object, she finally snapped the tricorder closed as she came to several conclusions:
A: She did not know what it was.
B: She did not LIKE not knowing what it was.
She stormed back toward her jeep, reaching into the back to the radio set to call the office: "Patch me through to the Starfleet Garrison: We have a problem..."
A couple moments later, a lazy-sounding voice on the other end managed to pick up the other end of the radio. "This is Starfleet Security Dispatch, how can I assist you this evening?"
Eying the object suspiciously, Shea huffed softly; "This is Marshal Voran. I've only been on this planet a few days now, and I don't suppose you could tell me if there are creatures on this planet say... Oviparous, with eggs that measure... I wanna say about ten meters across?"
There was a long pause. Almost too long. "Did you say an egg? Just a moment." Instead of hold music, the conversation between the dispatch receiver and his co-worker came over the line. Procedures were talked about, before the dispatch returned to the conversation. "Ma'am, I... don't believe we've heard that one yet. Where are you located so we can send out-"
The rest of his sentence cut off in the next tremor. Nearby, the farmer let out a small yelp, squatting down and holding her precious turnips close.
The egg, however, stirred in the tremor. It seemed to want to move itself out of the ground.
"-... Ma'am?" came the dispatch again. "Everything alright over there?"
Shea was braced against her jeep, looking back at the object wide-eyed. "Standby!" There was a hint of alarm in her voice as she flipped open the tricorder again to scan under the object - this time from the safe distance of the road. "I'm at a turnip farm on the southeast side. Grid 33-45..."
"Thank you Ma'am. We'll see if we can get an officer out to your location-" The tremors started to grow, as the object started to push itself from out of the ground. As the ground began to give way, a deep green glow began to peek through from beneath the ground the pair stood on. Nearby, the farmer let out and ear-curdling screech.
"MY TURNIPS!!"
"FORGET THE TURNIPS!" Shea grabbed the farmer, practically throwing her into the passenger seat of the jeep, starting it up, and practically peeling out back toward the Colony. As she drove she grabbed the radio; "STARFLEET; THIS THING IS A TAD BIGGER THAN TEN METERS!" The Security Ensign would have to be an idiot not to hear the alarm in her voice; "SCRAMBLE A SHUTTLE OVERFLIGHT TO GET EYES ON THIS THING." She paused to bring up a mental map - one kilometer perimeter should suffice; "I'M ESTABLISHING A COMMAND POST AT TENTH AND EAST BEND AVENUE; SEND RESPONDING OFFICERS THERE! DEPLOY SECURITY TEAMS TO EVACUATE EVERYONE EAST OF THAT LOCATION!"
There was only a half second hesitance on the other end, before the dispatcher started to relay messages to whomever was on duty-in charge. In a similarly alarmed but much less yelly tone.
In the passengers seat, the Bolian woman frowned at the small amount of turnips she had left, looking behind her as they drove off from the 'egg,' which had revealed itself to be a simple bump on a much, much larger shell.
"... At least it didn't get my cabbages," she murmured under her breath. But she looked grateful that she was not part of that massacre, settling herself in the seat. She looked to Shea, waiting to see if she could at least... throw a turnip at something that might have offended them.
Shea dropped the handset to the radio and flipped a couple of switches: A blue beacon mounted on a pole on the back-left of the Jeep began flashing, and a mournful wail began sounding warning those in her path she was coming through, and fast. Glancing at her passenger Shea frowned; "Not sure how much is going to be left if that thing wakes up fully. What we saw was, as the Humans would say, 'the Tip of the Iceberg'... More literal than intended in this case..."
RSS FeedCredits | Privacy Policy